Kurt Lockwood Bids Industry Farewell

Friends gather for private going-away party

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Three-time AVN award-winner Kurt Lockwood has decided to step away from the X-rated limelight, and some of his closest industry friends assembled on Sunday to officially send him off with an intimate farewell toast.

Held at the home of actor/interviewer James Bartholet, the gathering saw Ron Jeremy, Sunny Lane, Gwen Diamond, Jack Lawrence, All Media Play's Jeff Mullen and Scott David, Eve Mayfair, Eddie Charisma, Savannah Jane and a few others wishing Lockwood their best over potluck food and drinks.

Late in the afternoon, the building's power went out due to a blown transformer nearby, and so the party moved out to the pool, where Lockwood sat down with this reporter to explain the reasoning behind his departure.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald said that there are no third acts in American lives," he began. "My first act in my life was growing up, graduating college, touring as a guitar player for Dee Dee Ramone. Second act was becoming, for lack of a better term, a world-famous porn star. The third act? I'd like to have a third act."

Kurt will be moving to Spain, where his expecting girlfriend recently relocated. "I want to see the world," he elaborated, "I want to start a family. I never meant for this to be my final stop in life. The same sort of rebellious, adventurous spirit that brought me from my small town on the east coast out to the west coast is the same thing that's sort of driving me to see the rest of the world."

And while Spain is where he plans to be for the foreseeable future, he's not stating outright that the porn world has seen the last of him. In fact, he still plans to fly back in November to shoot the already-scheduled American Gigolo for SexZ pictures, and he's also weighing offers from a number of other companies to be flown in periodically for shoots.

"I reserve the right to make up my mind at a later date," Lockwood said. "I'm gonna spend the next couple of weeks in Nice, Monaco and all throughout Spain. I'm just gonna surf my ass off for three months, and then I'll make a decision later on if I feel like coming back or not."

Should he never return, though, Kurt says the movie he wants to be remembered for is The Real Boogie Nights, also from SexZ Pictures.

"I was so glad to make that," Lockwood mused, "because my life has mirrored Dirk Diggler so surreally and in so many ways, it's just fucking bizarre to me. It's almost my life story. The words, the music, the hot car, everything. Plus getting to meet Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of the real, actual Hollywood movie, and for him saying, 'I'm thrilled that you guys made this movie,' you can't ask for more than that."

If there's one thing Lockwood said he considers a downside to his time in porn, it's that there's yet to be a talent union formed. "I think there's certain things that should be standardized in our industry, particularly work conditions," he opined. "I would have liked to have seen more rights for us. It's definitely an idea whose time has come, if somebody can get it together."

As for final parting words, Lockwood had the following to offer: "It seems like we were stars once, and now it's amateur hour 24-seven. I'm grateful that I got to be a part of at least the tail end of the golden era when we were real actors and real stars, and people were interested in us as personalities. I don't think it's possible in the new, internet-driven era. It's a completely new business, and the era of stars is dying. I'm just glad to have been a part of the rich tradition of what it was before, and contributed to that in a positive way. I had a lot of fun. And I can only hope that people coming after me have as much fun as I did."